Bittersweet
by Avindara Nirvene
Summary: NarcissaxLucius, and how they came to be. Twelve drabbles, written for Rye the Random's challenge. A year into Narcissa Black's life. for EHWIES, because she's awesome.
1. January

Chapter 1... **100 Percent Chocolate.**

_(as chocolate is bittersweet)_

January 1st, and he gave her a box of chocolate.

The very best from Honeydukes," he tells her, stiffly. She thanks him, and leaves, Apparating from her doorstep to her room.

Inside her room, she paces about.

(What is he after?)

She distinctly remembers her parents betrothing Andromeda to Lucius, but since Andromeda has eloped…

(they want her)

She longs for true love, like those Prince Charmings in the fairy tales she had secretly read in the library, during her first few years at Hogwarts. She wants someone to care for her, cuddle her, and love her, someone wealthy, someone who would treat her right, someone who would give her what she needed.

Lucius didn't seem to meet all the qualifications.

She tasted the chocolate. It was horrible – bitter and pure.

(Just like him)

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Review. 


	2. February

**Chapter 2... Contemplating Love and Lucius.**

_(is it real?)_

He doesn't come calling for a month, in which Narcissa is relieved – as she has the time to contemplate, yet worried at the same time.

(Does he not like her anymore?)

(But then again, he may have never did.)

She locks herself in her room, never answering when her parents call her for dinner, or when Bellatrix bangs on her door. She survives through February solely through the house-elf – who sends the food through the window and into her mouth.

(What is love?)

She longs for the books back at the library, to read up on love, or ask her parents about it.

(But her parents have none to share, it seems)

All she remembers from the fairy tale prince is the sweet, loving smile – which, obviously, Lucius has not.

(Does he love her, then?)

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Please review :) 


	3. March

**Chapter 3... Accident.**

_(they happen, yet some can be avoided)_

He's calling again, and one day he shows up with some beautiful dress robes for her, ones she's seen a shop and they cost a fortune. She tries them on.

The blue of the silk material matches her eyes, he tells her.

(She thinks the words would have sounded prettier if he was smiling.)

Nevertheless, she doesn't say a word, just turns around, staring at the mirror, staring at her reflection – as beautiful and fragile as always. The dress rustles quietly at her legs, and it is a lovely sound, she thinks.

He says he wants her to wear them to their wedding.

Narcissa starts, and trips over the long hem of the dress robes, crashing into the mirror.

It shatters, and she sees a bloody mess of herself in a single shard of mirror before whirring into a world of black.

At the hospital, she regains consciousness, and he is not there, by her side. Instead, a Healer is, patting her head and telling her that her parents will be here shortly.

She lies awhile before her parents arrive, recalling the moment she fell. There had been a split second before she smashed into her reflection, enough time for Lucius to step in front of her, and catch her.

(Wasn't that what Prince Charmings did, sacrificed themselves for their loves?)

She is able to leave the hospital a month later.


	4. April

**Chapter 4... Engagement.**

_(for that's what **they **want)_

She eavesdrops on her parents and learns that the Malfoys want Lucius to be engaged, and right now.

The procession is done during a thunderstorm.

(She was always afraid of storms.)

He slides the engagement ring onto her scarred finger as the thunder booms.

(Is it booing at him?)

She wishes she knew.

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Rather short, but review please! 


	5. May

**Chapter 5... Emerald-coloured Roses.**

_(yet she couldn't tell him it was all wrong)_

They are dining, at a lovely little restaurant in Hogsmeade, when he sets a bouquet of roses in front of her, a bouquet of green roses.

(That isn't right.)

Roses aren't supposed to be green, they're supposed to be red, or pink, or yellow.

He tells her it represents their House – Slytherin. He says this with a haughty air, as if they should be very proud to be in Slytherin. She nods, but she doesn't really understand.

(Even a single blue rose would be lovelier.)

Instead it is the same colour as her emerald engagement ring.

She'd like to leave, run off like her sister Andromeda did last month, but cannot.

(She is bound.)

(What would her parents say if they heard her thoughts?)

She finishes eating, and daintily wipes her mouth on the starched napkin. Lucius pays for the food, and they leave, her carrying the green roses.

That night, a passing raccoon finds a bouquet of jade-green roses in the bushes behind a three-story marble house. It blends in perfectly with the bushes' leaves.

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Review please :) They make my day. 


	6. June

**Chapter 6... I Do. **

_(the rain plinks upon the windows)_

The wedding is to be arranged to happen on June 22nd.

Druella lets Narcissa know the day before. Narcissa longs to tell her mother no, decline the order, explain to her mother that she didn't want to be married so soon, didn't like being ordered around so, didn't love Lucius.

(Or did she?)

Instead, she nods, as if she understands.

(She wishes she did.)

(Why doesn't she?)

Druella nods back, curtly, and leaves her room, leaving her to her own thoughts.

She glances around the room.

(Tomorrow it isn't hers anymore.)

xx

She doesn't wear the azure silk robe, because it is in the absolute ruins, and there is nothing the magical repairs could do about the many mirror debris. Instead, she wears a heavy, seaweed-green dress robe.

(It is the ugliest shade of her least-favourite colour imaginable.)

"Well?" the priest is looking at her expectantly. As is Lucius, Druella, everyone.

(Why did they expect so much of her anyway?)

"I do," she answers, poised and the next moment she is falling, falling…

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Review, please. 


	7. July

**Chapter 7... Escape.**

_(because no one knows where she'll go)_

Two weeks after their wedding, Narcissa flees.

Lucius is on a week-long "business trip" (or so he says) but he'd been eyeing many of the girls during their wedding ball.

(If Lucius was there, she'd never dare to run – but she would never admit it.)

She Apparates far off – into the mountains – where there a couple of elderly people are camping. They offer her a dinner and a sleeping bag – she accepts.

(She does look awful – with her hair all mussed and robes torn from rose thorns)

She doesn't care that they are Muggles, and they have to cook by fire and matches.

Sitting by the crackling flames, she can feel the warmth of the scorching fires. The others are fanning themselves as they grill the fresh-caught fish, but Narcissa never sweats a drop. Instead, she is still a pale, pale white – and her fingers remain as ice-cold as they would be if she was in Antarctica. She refuses to eat, but goes to bed straight after.

(The fish has no flavour, and her teeth are chattering too severely anyway)

A few days on, bedraggled and limping, she returns to his empty mansion.

(As she would never call it hers)

Dobby the house-elf helps her in, promising never to speak word of her run-off. She dons new dress robes (a scarlet silk) as the elf brews a ginger broth and heals her cuts and wounds.

(Hopefully, he would never find out.)

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Reviews are helpful -nudgenudge-


	8. August

**Chapter 8... where to?**

_(some silences are golden)_

The polished, ebony door opens with a bang, and Lucius says (in that soft and slippery voice he has) "We're going for a travel."

(Where to?)

"Japan," Lucius answers sharply, "Now hurry, we have to catch that Portkey."She obliges, slipping out of her nightgown and into suitable dress robes.

They spend a month there, living in the best hotels and tasting gourmet sashimi.

(At first she wonders if Dobby has told on her.)

Tea was everyday at four, and the peaceful aroma soothed her. She no longer needed to wear gloves.

(Her hands warmed, and more importantly, so did her heart.)

They kept their silence between them, but it was a beautiful stillness – one silence both were comfortable with.

(So this is love?)

(Or just friendship?)

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Review! -says in commanding tone-

(there you go, for the people who wanted some interaction between them - wait for more in the next chapter)


	9. September

**Chapter 9... Scarlet Smoke.**

_(what's the use if it can't hide you from him?)_

Narcissa wishes to see the Hogwarts Express leave this year, so there they are, on September 1st, standing awkwardly on Platform 9 3/4.

She stares at the scarlet smoke billowing from the train's head, remembering that beautiful day seven years ago.

Lucius breaks the trance with a soft kiss – they hear whistles and cat calls from the starting train.

(She pulls away soon after the shock wears off.)

He has such a wide smirk on his lips, it's almost revolting – and it makes her want to slap him 'round the face.

(She can't do that, but she _can _sleep in another bedroom tonight.)

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Review, please -is desperate- 


	10. October

**Chapter 10... the night sky.**

_(she isn't allowed to see, so he tries to bring one to her.)_

He buys her a lamp in the middle of October (when the days get shorter and the leaves start falling.)

Lucius simply doesn't allow her access to the outside world anymore.

(She knows why, but could never blame the house-elf.)

He uses the simple excuse, "You're too delicate." She rolls her eyes but refuses to speak to him, let alone be in the same room.

He purchases the lamp to win back her acceptance, and she knows it.

But still, it is a pretty lamp – the most artistically done piece she's ever seen. Tiny silver beads twinkle upon the silk midnight-blue lampshade, and a crescent moon-shaped crystal is embroidered around the top. The lamp stand is painted like a wand (a phoenix feather sticks out from the side, and there are sparks flying from its tip.

"It must have cost a bit," Narcissa says in her quiet voice, and Lucius smiles.

(He's getting her to talk again.)

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(two more) please review! 


	11. November

**Chapter 11... Autumn Air.**

_(the nourishment she needs for preparation of the next shock)_

Days pass placidly – Lucius generates small talk between them, but no more than that.

Then…

An owl comes from the outside, to Narcissa – shattering the window just to enter. She recognises its sharp beak and beautiful feathers – it's Bellatrix's owl Rina. The note is short:

_Funeral for Druella and Cygnus Black: November 23th._

Narcissa smiles, in spite of herself. Now Lucius will have to let her out.

Xx

There is almost no one at the funeral – only the preacher, Lucius, and herself. (Bellatrix was with the Dark Lord, Andromeda in hiding.) She sighs, inhaling the cool autumn air.

(She hasn't breathed real air since a month ago.)

The preacher drones on and on, and Lucius (on her right) dozes off. She gently shakes him awake at the very end, and they stand up to pay their respects.

Xx

At the manor, as she is opening a bottle of firewhiskey, is when the fear begins to sink in.

(What will happen to her now?)

She's stuck here, forever.

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well this is the penultimate - and please review :) 


	12. December

**Chapter 12... endings.**

_(And they made up one day and fell in love, living happily ever after. The end.)_

Not so

**The snow** falls_ fast_ and thick on the ground.

(It is December already, and close to Christmas.)

She has spent the last few weeks moping on the many sofas the Malfoy Manor owned, about her parents, her future, everything.

Now she watches the snow fall.

"_You see the snow there?" seven-year-old Andromeda says self-importantly. Four-year-old Narcissa nods eagerly, placing her chubby little hands on the window. "A lot of people don't like the snow," Andi continues. "I like it," Cissy cuts in, "It's pretty." _

"_Don't interrupt," Andi prods her younger sister, then finishes, "But even though so many people don't like it, it keeps falling."_

(It keeps falling.)

xx

It is Narcissa's nineteenth birthday. Lucius purchases a box of pure chocolate, the best from Honeydukes.

She accepts the bitter taste.

(And him, of course.)

(For he's all she has now.)

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well, this is the last piece I'm writing in 2007. I hope you enjoyed it, I don't know what to say, and please leave a review:) 


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